• You can delegate these tasks to someone else
• You can systemise the tasks
• You can automate them
• You can delete them entirely (in our last article we looked about deleting those tasks that are really not necessary)

Here we will consider in detail some of the other things you can do, starting with a process of delegation.

In our recent article on life we talked about obstacles and the advantages of knowing yourself and your strengths when dealing with obstacles. The first step is to identify your strengths:

• What you are good at
• What you can term your unique brilliance zone

This will enable you to decide how to do the things you’re good at and enjoy doing and which tasks need to be delegated to the appropriate people. For many entrepreneurs the first task that gets delegated is accounting or book-keeping. This is because most entrepreneurs do not like these tasks; it‘s not usually one of their strong points so it makes logical sense to delegate it to somebody who will enjoy doing it in an efficient manner. You may think that this will cost money you can’t afford, whether it is just simply hiring a book-keeper when starting up a new business or making a key managerial appointment in a big organisation. The point is that, if you are aware of how much your time is worth, then it makes sense to pay someone to do some of the work that you cannot do. This will free up your time to concentrate on the higher value tasks that you excel at.

The next thing to learn is how to reduce time spent on some of these awkward tasks by systemising them. Many tasks in a business are routine, they happen regularly every day, every week, and every month. There is very little difference in the action each time the task is undertaken. It makes sense to build systems that can deal with these tasks to allow you to delegate that system to someone who may not necessarily need to be totally qualified to understand the standards required, the objectives and the steps in the process. Systemisation is the key to any good business and helps to add value to your organisation, ensuring that you are able to consistently deliver an excellent product or service to your clients. This may seem bureaucratic, but your business will run far more smoothly if you have efficient written systems and processes in place.

Finally, it is becoming easier and easier in these high tech days to automate tasks. A simple example of this is the ability to set up systems within the company bank account that will automatically pay the regular bills. This may seem obvious, and indeed in many ways it is, but it will save you an awful lot of time if you do not have to sit down once a week to write out cheques for recurring bills that can be paid automatically via a direct debit mandate or a standing order. Automation is already integral to most of our lives -we automate the delivery of our newspaper through the local newsagent and we automate the collection of regular customer payments through the BACS system. Production processes are automated via investment in computerised control systems and plants that automate regular tasks. Discovering how automation can help you to run an efficient business model is certainly an exercise worth considering.

So, what is the result of all this? You have identified a number of tasks, learned how to delegate them, delete them, systematise them or automate them in order to leave yourself more time. For the entrepreneur, this creates time for you to do the things that are really important, the things that are going to really add value to your life and your business. At the same time it means that as an entrepreneur, you can spend more and more time on your business rather than in the business. Ironically, this will result in your business becoming less dependent on you rather than more dependent. You have discovered that building teams to do your work ensures that you are no longer reliant on a single individual (usually yourself). This will give you more time to devote to planning your business, dealing with your key clients, developing your company in a way that will lead to you enjoying a more satisfied and fulfilled life - an entrepreneur’s life in which the business is your servant, providing you with the time and money that will enable you to live the life you really want.